Self-Regulation and Mathematics Anxiety: The Conditional Mediating Role of Mathematical Language Self-Efficacy and Implications for Inclusive Education

In this quantitative study, we investigated the conditional mediating role of students’ mathematical language self-efficacy in the relationship between self-regulation and mathematics anxiety. The study employed a relational research design and included survey data from 706 middle school students attending public schools in Turkey. Findings indicated that both self-regulation and perceived self-efficacy in mathematical language use were significantly associated with mathematics anxiety. Moreover, the effect of self-regulation on mathematics anxiety was significantly mediated by students’ perceptions of their ability to understand and use mathematical language self-efficacy. The indirect effect was negative while the direct effect was positive, indicating a suppression (competitive mediation) effect, whereby self-regulation exerts both anxiety-reducing and potentially anxiety-inducing influences through different pathways. Conditional mediation analysis further revealed that this mediating effect varied as a function of students’ perceived academic support, with the indirect effect being non-significant for students who did not receive support. Measurement invariance across gender and grade level was examined to ensure that the constructs were measured equivalently across groups. These findings highlight the importance of fostering both self-regulation skills and mathematical language proficiency, particularly in contexts where students may lack sufficient support. These findings provide a theoretically grounded and practically relevant framework for understanding mathematics anxiety within inclusive mathematics education contexts.